‘One life, one liver’: Over one million hepatitis-related deaths every single year – and one new chronic infection every ten seconds. And that’s why liver health is fundamental to human health.

This year’s World Hepatitis Day is under the moto ‘One life, one liver’ and presents an opportunity to step up national and international efforts on hepatitis, encourage actions and engagement by individuals, partners and the public and highlight the need for a greater global response as outlined in the WHO's Global hepatitis report of 2017.

Helix Animation Team joins in these efforts, with a small awareness contribution - a 3D still image representation of Hepatitis B virus inside the bloodstream, showing how it generates a huge amount of surface proteins that distract the antibodies, thus disabling them from reaching and tackling the virus.

You’ve only got one life, and you’ve only got one liver. Hepatitis can devastate both. Your liver silently performs over 500 vital functions every single day to keep you alive. But viral hepatitis infection is also silent, with symptoms only appearing once the disease is advanced. Although there are many different types of hepatitis viruses (A to E), hepatitis B and C are the most concerning and cause nearly 8000 new infections every day, which are mostly going undetected.

So many hepatitis deaths could be prevented. Because there are vaccines and effective treatments for hepatitis B and even a cure for hepatitis C - you CAN protect yourself and your loved ones. (Source: World Health Organization).

The date of 28 July was chosen because it is the birthday of Nobel-prize winning scientist Dr Baruch Blumberg, who discovered hepatitis B virus (HBV) and developed a diagnostic test and vaccine for the virus. Low coverage of testing and treatment is the most important gap to be addressed in order to achieve the global elimination goals by 2030. Find out more at: https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-hepatitis-day 

Helix Animation Team